The Evidence Against You: The gripping bestseller from the author of Richard & Judy pick That Night

We chose this book for book club, and it was quite a mixed bag! While it was mostly enjoyable, I didn't relate well to the characters and the plot. I found it annoying, but it brought up some interesting questions.

I previously read Gillian McAllister's book How to Disappear, and I loved it and gave it a five-star review. I was really looking forward to this book, but I was disappointed.

Firstly, the title of the book, The Evidence Against You, should have been called The Evidence Against Him, as this was mentioned throughout the book. However, that aside, I liked the cover.

The plot had a great premise. Izzy's father, Gabe, has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence for killing her mother. He comes to find Izzy and wants to prove his innocence, all of which is understandable and believable – how many criminals say they are innocent? The rest of the story follows with various twists and turns, making you wonder who else could have done it and why and thinking about whether Gabe is innocent. The Evidence Against You does create a good amount of uncertainty.

Izzy's recollections of her parent's relationship, the night of the murder and numerous events her father speaks of are interesting and provide further intrigue into what is real and whom to believe.

I found the repetition a little annoying and some parts too far-fetched. For example, how many people would just accept the situation without thinking of it for almost two decades and without investigating it or reading about it, especially someone so young and presumably more curious? There were some excessive hints about what had happened and a few too many red herrings. Although, the full details don't come to light until the end. It is a big twist I didn't see coming, though I had recognised that it was related.

I didn't connect to Izzy at all. I found her irritating and more than a bit strange in some of her actions. Her husband Nick was also unlikeable and seemed a bit pathetic. However, it did make me wonder if perhaps he was pretty controlling of her (this wasn't mentioned). For example, he didn't want her to interact with his family on their family chat and wanted to ensure she did what he thought was best. But, on the other hand, he may have genuinely been trying to look after her.

Gabe was the more likeable character for me. He appeared to genuinely love Izzy and wanted to try to prove his innocence, though I am unsure why he left it for his whole sentence to try. Additionally, he didn't seem like he had been a particularly good husband to Izzy's mother, Alex, before her death. However, he is an 'arty type', so perhaps this is just his personality, and she always just accepted it.

It felt like there were a lot of inconsistencies in the plot. For example, I couldn't understand why Izzy had some family relationships but not others. I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but it didn't hold together as enjoyable and believable to me.

The part I did enjoy the most was the feeling of being institutionalised. It posed (perhaps unintentionally) many questions about our prison and reform systems and what these should achieve and how. Again, the depictions of this in Gabe came through well.

I didn't enjoy the ending. It felt rushed and like Izzy had dropped everyone around her, though it was good to see that she had moved on in many ways.

This is a book that's so good it stays with you. You finish it, you move on to something else but still from time to time it sneaks its way back into your head.

The story is simple really. Here is Izzy, a woman living on the Isle of Wight, married to Nick, a police analyst, and running a restaurant with the help of her cousin. So far so ordinary. And then come the shocks, one after the other. The restaurant was started and run by Izzy’s mother, who was murdered by none other than Izzy’s father in a fit of jealous rage. Or so said the prosecution before he was found guilty – in spite of his protestations of innocence – and put away for 18 years. And now the 18 years have passed, Izzy’s father is out and has contacted her. He wants to see her, talk to her and try to convince her of his innocence.

From then on, the story moves back and forth between the past and the here and now. And it moves between the two of them telling the story from their two different viewpoints. Izzy enlists the help of her analyst husband, even using his confidential on-line access to delve into what happened. Initially she does this to affirm her conviction of her father’s guilt but slowly, gradually, her view of what happened begins to shift and she starts to wonder.

I won’t say more about the plot so as to not give anything away.

All the characters are interesting and well-drawn. I liked the timid Izzy who, in spite of her reticence, keeps digging. First to confirm her father’s guilt and get him out of her life (and head) once and for all, but later to look for other solutions. For 18 years she has coasted. Not really living; not much liking her job at the restaurant; going home to eat the junk food which she really likes; and to remember the days before it all happened, when she was a young ballet dancer dreaming of becoming a ballerina.

The father is more difficult to like. Eighteen years ago, before the murder, he was what he himself termed a ‘free spirit’ – painting in his container on the beach whenever the mood took him, but in fact being a thoroughly irresponsible drag and drain on his wife. In the here-and-now he is needy, unsure, determined to strike up a relationship with his daughter, and unable to fit into a life of freedom.

I liked the writing. The book is written entirely in the present tense. This gives the story immediacy and urgency. And the plotting is good as well, subtle and believable. There are no proverbial last-minute tricks out of a hat to show us what happened. The plot just unfolds quite naturally, almost growing in front of our eyes.

The ending is both sad and uplifting. It shows Izzy as a ballet teacher having found peace and the same with her father. But it also shows what many years of incarceration can do. The intensely longed-for freedom can be too much, the outside world can be a place too scary and lonely. This sentiment reminds me of that great film The Shawshank’s Redemption. where too often the men released after many years inside end up not choosing the struggle to adapt to life but instead choosing the noose over the ceiling beam.

A good book worth the time it takes to read it. 5 stars.
Frejya.